To God be the glory?
From religious leaders who don’t practice what they preach to the loss of loved ones, here’s a piece that would have you on an emotional rollercoaster.
Four Nigerians share stories of scenarios that made them flip religion the bird and stop believing in the existence of a god.
Hassanah*, 30
I’m from a very devout Muslim family. And for a while I was devout – woke up on time for prayers, never skipped my Ramadan fasting cycles.
When I was 17, my twin brother, Hassan slumped and became paralyzed.
Hassan was a saint. He would follow me to the salon and stand as a watchman to ensure no man saw my hair. He was more faithful than I ever was.
We prayed without ceasing and spent all we had on treatments. After all our supplications, God still took him away from us. His death broke my parents heart and hardened mine.
Another painful part was we were offered admission a few weeks before Hassan slumped. As for my hair, I have experimented with so many dyes that I can barely remember what it looked like while I was still practising.
Agnes*, 29
I was already one leg in, one leg out but the pandemic did it for me.
My elder sister used to be an altar server and a very active one at that. Though we were visibly struggling, everyone including the chaplain acted oblivious. To the point where, my sister even lost her university admission.
Even before the pandemic, it was the culture in parishes that people bring forth food items and other gifts as thanksgiving so, food was surplus.
The food items kept going rotten in the barn while the poor section of the congregation starved. Never was it offered to the needy, even during the pandemic. It was just a scheme to collect money from the rich congregation.
It was just somehow that the same set of judgmental people were rotten inside. I blatantly told them the last time they came to “beseech” me that I can’t hold on to a belief where people don’t practice what they preach. I no get time for hypocrisy, abeg.
Bintu*,
Mine came from curiosity because my dad is an Alhaji and my mum, a deaconess. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how these two parallels coped with each other. It’s harder on us children, because they kept trying to sway us to their respective religions. Anyways, curiosity got the better of me a few years ago and I started digging.
I had so many questions but my parents and other people I approached discouraged me. Saying I would end up in hell for questioning the ways of God. I understand that God is a mystical being but I needed someone to make sense of the scriptures. Like why did Jesus and Isa have to be sacrificed? Why should murderers and rapists be justified to enter heaven just by repenting?
I found no answers and eventually quit. I can’t pretend to believe in things even the core believers can’t explain.
#PeopleTalk is a submissions segment for everyday people to talk straight about the twists and turns of everyday life. This edition features the events that led to three Nigerians losing their faith.
